HYDERABAD:
Congress leaders-- Kanna Lakshminarayana and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao-- continued to squabble over getting their respective kin elected Mayor of the Guntur Municipal Corporation even as the party overcame internal problems to win three more municipalities on Saturday.

Amid further trouble, the ruling party won the Tenali Municipality but ensured there were no more problems in bagging the Chairperson posts in Dhone and Jammalamadugu. The Congress tally has now increased to 82 in the 95 municipalities where the results have so far been declared.

Maruthi Jayalakshmi was elected Chairperson of Dhone Municipality where the special meeting was postponed on Friday due to lack of quorum. In Jammalamadugu, Bandaru Ragasudha, who belongs to the Backward Classes community, was unanimously elected Chairperson.

Vice-chief not elected

Describing the attempts by party leaders in Guntur to seek the support of Telugu Desam corporators as an anti-party activity, APCC president K. Keshava Rao said the high command had taken a serious view of the developments.

Staff Reporter from Guntur adds: In Tenali, four Telugu Desam Party members came to the rescue of the group led by Congress MP Vallabhaneni Balashourie and ensured the victory of his nominee, Tadiboyina Mastanamma. The newly elected councillors ensured the required numbers for the quorum at a meeting boycotted by Tenali MLA Nadendla Manohar, but the Congress put off the election of Vice-Chairperson.

In Guntur, the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor was postponed to October 5 due to lack of quorum at the special meeting for the second day. Numbers remained constant in the camps of both Cooperation Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, MP.

At the appointed time, 19 Congress corporators, four Independents and two MLAs - T. Venkata Rao and R. Venkata Ramana -- arrived at the Municipal Corporation building, but did not enter it as they did not have 29 members for the quorum. Presiding officer G. Jayalakshmi put off the election, and referred the matter to the State Election Commission.

Meanwhile, Mr. Sambasiva Rao blamed the State party leadership for working against the interest of a particular community. He said injustice was done to his family and questioned as to why his brother's son was denied the Mayor post.

TDP strategy

He said his group did not have any strategy to take the help of the TDP nor was it planning to extend support to them.

The TDP corporators, meanwhile, were holidaying at Bhavani Island in the Krishna in Vijayawada with former Minister Alapati Rajendra Prasad keeping a watch on them. A senior party leader, Vasireddi Jayaramaiah, said that the TDP would not extend support to the Congress but would take support of one of its groups to get its man elected Mayor.